New Delhi: After the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) declared a 30:30:40 evaluation pattern for Class 12, disappointment and anxiety has gripped students across the country.
The board informed the Supreme Court Thursday that the final evaluation of Class 12 students will be based on marks obtained in classes 11 and 10 as well.
According to the submission, the Class 12 results will be tabulated by considering 30 per cent marks from Class 10 board exams, 30 per cent from Class 11 and 40 per cent from Class 12 assessments.
However, students noted that classes 10 and 12 have always been considered extremely important and therefore, most of them do not take Class 11 seriously. For science students, especially, the focus shifts away from academics in Class 11 since most of them ramp up preparations for various entrance exams.
Several students also took to social media and shared memes to air their grievances regarding the proposed marking scheme.
#CBSE giving weightage to Class XI marks in the internal assessment of Class XII, but they don't get that 🙁 pic.twitter.com/wv3Fsy4JoH
— Latika Agarwal (@latikaagg) June 17, 2021
Those Students Whos Performance Of Class 12th Much Better Than 11th and 10th Class Now To CBSE..#CBSE pic.twitter.com/5oqBHsDJ49
— Rishab Singh (@Rishabisback) June 17, 2021
The CBSE also told the court that the results will be declared by 31 July. This comes after the Narendra Modi government decided to cancel the Class 12 board exams last month, due to the second Covid-19 wave.
‘Class 11, pre-board exams considered practice’
According to students, using marks obtained in Class 11 to tabulate Class 12 results was unfair since they are usually low.
“Studies and exams in Class 11 are set in a way to prepare students for Class 12, which is why it is very difficult. A lot of students end up failing in Class 11 because of the strictness in evaluation as well. Using those scores for final evaluation is unfair for the students,” said 18-year-old Mahima Kumari, a Class 12 student from Bihar’s Patna.
“In addition to this, our pre-boards this year were held online … a lot of students cheated and ended up getting good grades. How is it fair to the students who genuinely worked hard for the exam?” Kumari told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, Aaliya Hussain, a student from Ghaziabad noted that there was huge loss of productivity due to online classes and the Covid-19 pandemic last year, and a lot of students were unprepared for their pre-boards as a result.
“Students weren’t able to focus and prepare much. And then the sudden announcement of pre-boards left a lot of students unprepared leading them to either skip exams or score comparatively less. Many considered pre-boards as a practice exam and were hopeful to score better in boards,” said Hussain.
She added that it was the same case with Class 11 exams. “Students tend to not focus much on scoring considering the fact it’ll not be counted further.”
The situation is further complicated for students from the Science stream who usually don’t prioritise Class 11 academics to prepare for entrance exams.
“For science students preparing for competitive exams, most coaching classes advise them to keep schools on the backfoot and focus only on JEE/NEET prep since time is there and there are no board exams,” noted a Class 12 student from Gujarat.
“Students end up scoring less since the syllabus increases manifold in Class 11 compared to Class 10. And since Class 11 marks usually are counted for nothing except foreign university admissions, for most students, they do not matter,” the student, who wished to remain unnamed, added.
(With inputs from Kritika Sharma)
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